Rise of the Blood Goddess
by Strike3
Summary: Lara Croft vs Purgatori, the vampire goddess from the defunct Chaos Comics


Tomb Raider  
Rise of the Blood Goddess  
  
[This is a story of what might have been, and what may yet still be. It is about what might have happened if Top Cow had decided to purchase the licenses to the remaining Chaos characters. This is a story in which Purgatori has been re-imagined, much like Lady Death has been for CrossGen, and it would serve as Purgatori's first appearance in the Top Cow universe]  
  
Lara Croft, archaeologist and tomb raider, looks down from her personal helicopter as it flies out over the Sahara Desert. She never ceases to be amazed by this country. She has spent half her career travelling the world, unearthing ancient secrets, and the other half here in Egypt, exploring the ruins of mankind's oldest empire (with the possible exception of Atlantis). She has explored most of the pyramids and more crypts than she can count, yet still she knows that there are many secrets to be learned, many truths to be unburied.  
For example, Lara thinks to herself, as the helicopter begins to hover over an ancient mound in a barren corner of the desert, much of the history of Egypt remains unaccounted for. Most historians believe that the ancient Egyptian Empire, which once held sway over all Africa, suffered a gradual decline, through age and decadence, eventually losing control of its neighbour nations and being reduced to the small country it is today. But there is a large gap in the recorded history of this land and many archaeologists, Lara included, believe that four thousand years ago the Empire suffered a great cataclysm, similar to that suffered by the Roman Empire as it fell to barbarian invaders, and it was that cataclysm that caused Egypt's fall. What that cataclysm may have been, however, no one knows.  
But that was until another explorer, a native and relatively inexperienced, stumbled upon an ancient ruin in a barren corner of the Sahara. After a difficult climb up a rocky mound, he discovered the entrance to a structure which he claimed was abandoned and ancient. He believed it to be a lost temple of some forgotten god. He had attempted to explore deeper, but came across traps and dangers for which he was ill- prepared. Instead, he grabbed some of the treasures in the first rooms and left the ruined temple behind, returning to Cairo to sell both the treasures and his story.  
Lara had bid the highest. She had examined to treasures and had them carbon-dated, and to her excitement, discovered that they clearly dated from the lost period of Egypt's history. She quickly realised that this temple may hold the keys to discovering the truth behind Egypt's fall, and immediately organised an expedition to return to the temple.  
Having acquired accurate directions, and flown an initial sortie to scout out the exterior and confirm its existence, Lara now flies back towards the ruined temple, determined to explore its heart and uncover its secrets.  
The helicopter arrives at the mound and begins to hover above it. Lara checks her equipment one last time - backpack, air-grapple, flashlight, flares, compass, medical kit, and other basic tomb raiding equipment. She then tucks a pair of 9mm automatic pistols into holsters at her belt, and slings a shotgun over her shoulder; also basic tomb raiding equipment.  
Rather than undertake the difficult climb from below, Lara simply throws down a line and abseils down from above. Once she lands on the mound, she immediately looks around and discovers the entrance to the ruins. From the outside, it appears to be a simple cave mouth.  
Lara enters the cave, switches on her flashlight, and begins to descend the stairs. At first they appear to be a natural formation, but eventually they give way to a carven staircase. At the bottom Lara finds a doorway, with the stone door lying smashed on the ground beside it. Some ancient cataclysm must have broken the door loose, perhaps the same cataclysm that sunk this ruin beneath the ground, perhaps the same cataclysm that destroyed the Empire.  
Lara passes through the doorway and enters an enormous chamber. Massive columns line the walls, holding up the ceiling above. Hieroglyphs and murals adorn the walls. Along one wall are several alcoves containing statues of warriors and familiar gods. On the other wall there is an altar flanked by statues of Ra and Osiris. She also discovers several minor treasures and artefacts lying around, most of them smashed, which she ignores for now.  
Lara examines the murals; they appear to depict a series of ancient battles against some kind of demonic winged beasts. Images of the gods appear, though they seem to take no part in the battle.  
On the far side of the chamber, there is another doorway, and above the doorway is an inscription in the hieroglyphic language, which Lara translates.  
Below lies the Crypt of the Goddess of Blood, the Destroyer of Egypt. Whosoever opens this tomb shall unleash the eternal damnation of the underworld. Be warned, and go no further.  
Lara passes through the doorway, and descends into the darkness below.  
  
Lara passes through a catacomb filled with traps. Fortunately, most of the traps are broken and ruined, and those that remain are easily bypassed by an explorer with Lara's skills. With a sense of direction honed to perfection through years of tomb raiding, Lara soon comes to the heart of the maze.  
She enters a large and ornate chamber. The walls are again engraved with murals, and treasures and statuettes lie scattered haphazardly around, and at the centre of the chamber is a wide pit.  
Lara examines the murals in this chamber. They show the leader of the winged demons, this time doing battle with the gods themselves, defeating them and drinking their blood. But then the demon drinks the blood of the god Osiris, and it is poison to the demon. Dying, the demon is entombed within a crypt deep within the desert wastes, the crypt warded with many traps and buried underground. The gods forbid the recording of this tale in any recorded history, banishing the demon to forgotten legend.  
Lara approaches the pit, and finds that it is over five metres across, though less than a metre deep. The floor of the pit is made up of some kind of fossilized reddish-black stone. Lara leans over as she examines it.  
Suddenly, she hears a click from behind, and with instincts honed through years of experience, she instantly turns and jumps back, narrowly avoiding impalement from a bronze spike that shoots out from the wall at her. However, despite her skill, the spike slices through her tank-top and grazes her stomach, drawing a line of blood and causing her to gasp in pain.  
Lara grimaces away the discomfort and allows herself a sigh of relief at her narrow escape. Turning away from the pit, she takes off her backpack and digs through it for her medical kit. Kneeling down against the wall, she begins to apply disinfectant to her stomach and cover it with a bandage.  
As she works, the bronze spike still hangs over the pit, still marked with her blood, and slowly, ever so slowly, a drop of that blood falls into the pit.  
Where the blood makes contact with the red-black material at the bottom of the pit, cracks instantly begin to spread out, the material fracturing and splintering, the pieces sinking into the crimson liquid that lies beneath. The liquid begins to boil and bubble furiously.  
Lara lifts her head when she hears the cracking at the bottom of the pit, and stands to face the pit as it begins to bubble. She sniffs the air; I know that smell, she thinks to herself, it's blood.  
Suddenly, the blood within the pit shoots into the air, forming a crimson geyser. As Lara watches, the blood slowly coalesces and condenses into the shape of a human woman, but with wings. Her entire body is red as blood, save for her night-black hair and claws and eyes. The demoness throws back her head and screams.  
"Free! Free at last! And now I will have my vengeance!"  
The demoness looks down and finally seems to notice the human woman watching her warily. The demoness grins, showing lengthened fangs.  
"You have my gratitude for releasing me from my entombment. Tell me, are you one of my worshippers?"  
"I'm afraid not." Lara replies.  
"Then why did you free me?"  
"I am an explorer. This tomb has been lost for four thousand years, and I believed it to contain secrets to the lost history of this country."  
"Four thousand." the demoness whispers, stunned.  
"Who are you? What are you?" Lara asks.  
"I am Purgatori!" the demoness tells her. "Once I was a mortal woman, consort to the Queen herself. But then she betrayed me, cast me aside for her general, a man! So I escaped into the deserts and made a pact with an ancient being who wanted to destroy civilisation. He made me into a creature like him, yet not like him, for in my veins ran the blood of beings even more ancient than he! I returned to Alexandria and killed the Queen on her wedding day. Then I killed everyone in the city, building myself an army from their corpses, and set out to conquer the whole Empire. I destroyed city after city, nation after nation, and no one could stand before me. Even the gods themselves came down to do battle with me, and even they fell before my power, and I drank their blood, adding their power to my own. But then I drank the blood of Osiris, a dead god. Only the blood of the living can sustain creatures like me; the blood of the dead is poison, and the blood of a dead god is most lethal of all. It killed me, and they buried me here. But creatures like me do not stay dead forever. I live again, and I will taste vengeance!"  
"It was my blood that brought you back?"  
"Yes." Purgatori hisses. "I had my own worshippers back then, and when the priests of my enemies built this crypt, my own priests were secretly among their number. Most of the traps are designed to keep intruders out, but the ones in this room, built by my own worshippers, are designed to kill intruders and pour their blood into this pit, thus releasing me. You are fortunate to be alive."  
Lara shrugs. Purgatori drops from the air and walks towards Lara.  
"I am glad you are alive." Purgatori whispers seductively. "I will reward you for freeing me with immortality, and you will be my consort, forever."  
Purgatori reaches for her, and Lara kicks her arm away. She then spins round and kicks out, slamming the sole of her boot into Purgatori's face and knocking her to the floor. Lara then turns and races out of the chamber.  
"Feisty." Purgatori grins as she climbs to her feet. "I will enjoy breaking this one." Flapping her wings, the demoness rises into the air and flies out of the chamber in pursuit.  
  
Lara races into the main temple, having just managed to keep ahead of the pursuing Purgatori through the catacombs. She holds a mobile phone to her ear and when she enters the chamber, she immediately begins talking.  
"Prepare to drop me a line." A pause. "You'll know where."  
Purgatori flies into the chamber and grabs Lara from behind. Spinning her around, she slams Lara against one of the columns. Purgatori leers at her and leans in close.  
"Kiss me."  
Lara shoves the barrel of her shotgun under Purgatori's chin.  
"Kiss this."  
Lara pulls the trigger, and Purgatori reels back as her head explodes in a shower of blood. But the demoness does not fall, but simply staggers around blindly. Even as Lara watches, blood begins to flow up through her neck, and a new head begins to form.  
Ignoring the demon for the moment, Lara turns round, pulls something out from her backpack and slams an object against the column, which sticks there.  
Lara then races towards the next column and plants a second object against it. She turns to face Purgatori, who now has a new head. Lara aims her shotgun at it, and blows that one apart as well. She then runs to the third column and plants another object upon it.  
As Lara runs across the chamber towards the fourth column, she turns to find Purgatori having once more formed a new head. She blasts at the demoness' skull again with her shotgun, but this time Purgatori dodges the shot and flies at her, snarling. Lara spins round and smashes the head of a fossilized wooden spear off one of the statues. She then spins back round, just in time to meet Purgatori head on. The demoness reaches for her throat, but Lara knocks her claws aside with one hand, and slams the spearhead into her heart with the other.  
Purgatori looks down, at the fossilized wooden stake in her heart, then throws back her head and laughs.  
"I am far beyond such petty weaknesses, mortal."  
Lara takes advantage of Purgatori's amusement, and aims her shotgun at her face.  
"If you say so."  
Once again, Purgatori's head explodes and she reels blindly back. Lara plants an object against the fourth column, then runs along and plants another against the fifth. As Lara runs towards the sixth and final column, she blasts repeatedly at Purgatori, driving her back. She then stops against the last column and plants one more object upon it.  
Purgatori howls and flies at Lara, and as she takes aim, Purgatori knocks the shotgun aside and grasps her round the throat.  
"I'm still weak from my imprisonment." Purgatori hisses. "One drop was not enough. I must have your blood, all of it."  
Lara reaches back over her head and plants her hands against the column, lifts up her feet, places her boots against Purgatori's stomach and kicks out with all her strength. The demoness is forced to release her grip and thrown back. Lara then empties her shotgun into Purgatori's body.  
While Purgatori recovers, Lara reloads her shotgun, then slings it over shoulder and pulls out a pistol-like device. She turns, aims up at the top of the column, and pulls the trigger. A hooked grapple on a cord shoots out from the device, streaks up to the top of the column, and hooks into the upper ledge. Lara pulls the trigger again, and is reeled up to the top. Up there, Lara takes out final object from her backpack and sticks it on the roof above.  
By this time, Purgatori has completely regenerated. Spreading her wings, she leaps up and rises through the air towards where Lara precariously balances on the narrow ledge.  
As Purgatori becomes level with her, Lara un-slings her shotgun and takes aim. Purgatori growls.  
"The bolts in your weapon won't last forever, mortal."  
Purgatori prepares to duck any shots at her head, but Lara instead aims at the largest and least manoeuvrable part of the demoness' flying body; her wings. Lara blasts holes in the bloody membranes of each wing, and Purgatori goes crashing back down to the floor below.  
Lara re-slings her shotgun over her shoulder and picks up the air- grapple. Ejecting the cord, she places a new grapple in the barrel, takes aim, and fires the cord at the column across the chamber. After a quick test of its grip, she slings her belt over the cord and glides over to the ledge across the chamber.  
As she drops on to the ledge, Purgatori, having almost regenerated her wings, howls up at her from below.  
"I will make you beg for death, mortal! I will turn you, and you will spend eternity drinking the blood of dogs! I will make you my slave forever, to fulfil my every twisted, depraved desire!"  
Lara pulls out an object from her pocket. It is a small control panel, with a series of switches on it. She holds it in her hand, and gazes down at the demoness below.  
"No thank you." Lara tells her. "You're not my type." And she presses the last switch.  
The semtex, another essential piece of tomb raiding equipment, which she had planted at the base of every column, explodes in a blast of fire. The semtex planted on the roof also explodes, sending masonry crashing down onto the demoness. She swats at the rubble, but then screams as the sunlight begins pouring in, causing her crimson body to burn.  
The columns, their bases destroyed by the semtex, begin to topple over and fall, sending more rubble crashing into the chamber. Without the support of the columns, and damaged by the upper explosion, the roof itself begins to crack and fall apart.  
The column upon which Lara is standing also begins to fall, taking Lara with it. But as the column topples forward, a line of black rope suddenly drops through the hole in the roof, one end attached to something above. As the column falls, Lara leaps off and grabs the rope, swinging away as each one of the columns goes crashing down.  
Lara holds on to the rope as it is hauled upwards, and looks down, to see the entire temple come crashing down. Her last sight of Purgatori is of the demoness futilely holding up her hands, as the final column comes crashing down over her head. And then the rest of the temples falls, burying her under hundreds of tons of stone.  
Lara raises her head and begins climbing up into her personal helicopter, as it begins to fly back out over the desert.  
  
Purgatori stands within the shade of the cave mouth, and glares at the flying machine as it disappears into the distance. The mortal female has escaped. She cannot fly after her, not while the accursed sun still remains in the sky, and by the time night falls, the mortal will be long gone.  
Purgatori glances back at the ruins of the temple, and knows that she had been fortunate not to be trapped forever. She almost had been, but despite her current weakness she still had enough control over her semi- amorphous body to wriggle free.  
Nevertheless, she is not trapped. She is now free, or will be once night falls. Free to explore this world, to drink the blood of her enemies, and to take pleasure in the screams of her victims.  
And someday soon, she will have her vengeance, upon gods and mortals alike.  
Someday. Soon.  
For the eternal damnation of the underworld has been unleashed. 


End file.
